Thursday, August 24, 2006

A Parent's Worst Nightmare!

This is actually an early version, perhaps even the original (gonna do research to see if this is the case)... it is the actual souvenir record from the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. Disney teamed up with Pepsi-Cola and had their ride around a large mobile (told about on the jacket cover). The audio quality is typical Disney, but I think you can get the idea...

An interesting side note, the "It's A Small World" attraction is no longer in existence, at either the Los Angeles or the Florida Disney parks! Do I hear cheers of Huzzah! or do I sense a little pang of remorse.... there's a great site about what's there and not there anymore at DisneyWorld, you'll have to Google it, because I lost the URL. Silly me.

Click on the link for full size scans of the front and the back... if you want 'em.

10 Comments:

Yes, a total nightmare...but thanks anyway. You're going to make a ittle 4 year old girl very happy.

btw, the It's A Small World attraction is still at Disneyland in Anaheim. I was just on it about 4 months ago - and it was the exact same as it's always been, nothing changed. Actually my favorite ride of the trip.thanks again!

Hi Brad,Great to hear the entire version of 'small world' the yodeling part goes on a little too long though, I guess they had to fill the full-length ride time, what's wild is hearing the actual ending....but wonder is there really an ending when a repititious classic plays on a record makes it totally endearing ! Byron in Los Angeles

For a period of time in the lat 80's and early 90's I had the thrill of working at the Anaheim Disneyland. The office area where I was based was next to the Small World ride. It's important to remember that this ride was designed for the 1964 New York World's Fair, and was dissassembled afterwards and transported to the Park. Sicne it was designed in the early 60's the sound tech is Old School - an endless loop of very wide magnetic tape running to a bin and out again. Stuff like this has a problem, in that you never want to turn it off, since that can cause a fatal entangling scramble to tape, never to be fixed, barring the Gordian Knot solution. SO it runs, day and night, 24/7, with the amps left on for many of the same reasons.

As a result you ccan be working in the park at 3:30 AM (a common experience) and that damned song is ALWAYS blaring out of the speakers. I'm pleased to say that after about a month you don't even hear it any more, but that is one painful month.

And the same tale can be told about the Primeval World diorama. It runs 24/7 as well, and it's fairly creepy to be working on a problem where the lines run past that site, and dinosaurs are fighting at 2:00 am.

Well, I guess I won't be ripping my copy of this album anytime soon... Though I've also got a 12" that Disney released a few years later.

Sort of the same story as Zenman, a lady I was friends with actually worked on the "Small World" ride when it was at the World's Fair (I don't remember exactly what her job was -- probably taking tickets). She absolutely loathed the song because of the experience, and it DID work its way into her nightmares!

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This is a spin-off of the Shellac Shanty, since I often run into neat stuff that doesn't fit into the format (commercial 78rpm era releases). Included here are home recordings and other strange things I run across... enjoy!